The Gayest Day Ever
by HecateA
Summary: Nothing says homo-erotic subtext or straight-up gayness like Achilles and Patroclus, Sappho, Plato and Socrates, or even Alexander the Great. Hence the fireworks and confetti at camp on July 26. Oneshot.


**As a Canadian I've been covered for the last ten years, but I'm so ecstatic about the US supreme court ruling yesterday! Now that marriage is legal in all fifty states, I'm crossing my fingers that it'll set a global trend of some sort. I'm so excited to think that one day, there won't be a single person in North America who will ever _not_ have had the right to marry. That makes me happy. Hence, crackfic (maybe).**

 **Dedication: LGBTQ+ readers. We always win some and lose some, but yesterday the American brothers and sisters and siblings definitely won.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own any of the sets or players in the PJO universe**

* * *

 **The Gayest Day Ever**

Nico was not only good at shadow-traveling, but also of blending into the shadows themselves. At disappearing. At going unnoticed.

This was usually spectacularly helpful when he got to camp late and missed supper and couldn't wait until breakfast rolled in at Camp Jupiter _while_ being so grounded that he couldn't go to the Underworld for food. The harpies were unapologetic about attacking half-bloods in their kitchen and throwing the body in the next meal, but only if they saw you.

Never had Nico used his power to immerse himself in the shadows and the crooks where light didn't go to really occupy himself with anything that remotely resembled 'espionage'. But here he was, in the United States' Supreme Court, crossing his fingers and muttering prayers under his breath.

When the ruling was announced Nico shadow-traveled back to Half-Blood Hill. In his excitement he landed near Thalia's tree and ate a mouthful of pine needles. He spat them out promptly.

"Same-sex marriage is legal federally!" He shouted.

The group of half-bloods littering Half-Blood Hill and the central green rejoiced.

Nico saw couples who'd been holding hands fall into each other's arms and best friends tackle each other and people fall to their knees and shout and cry and thank Zeus and Aphrodite and every single god no matter how detached. Chiron was one of the loudest (the Ancient Greeks had basically invented bisexuality and Chiron could count the ammount of great statues without displayed genitalia on one hand; this heteronormativity and taboo was slowly but surely killing him), though he quickly composed himself and patted Lou Ellen on the shoulder as she hugged herself and burst into tears.

Nico smiled and sat down on the hill for a nice little moment himself. He didn't know what to think, but he knew he was happy. He'd started to smile without trying to, at least. That had to count for something.

Nico lay down in the grass.

Yeah. It had to count for something.

* * *

Lacy was in the main crowd of nervous half-bloods when Nico di Angelo came like the new and improved emo Jesus – a total Messiah. She admitted that she screamed and leapt up into Nyssa's arms and wrapped her arms around her neck and her legs around her waist and she didn't think she'd never let go because of how _good_ she felt and how hard Nyssa was holding onto her too.

But she did when she heard the commotion a few yards away.

Kayla (a brunette daughter of Apollo with a simple and clear face and a bright smile; she took courses at a university in South Dakota during the year so Lacy didn't know her too well) was shrieking, her hands plastered to her face. Her girlfriend, a crafty daughter of Demeter named Adele, was on one knee in front of her. She was crying too, saying "I've been waiting, I've just been waiting…"

Kayla faltered and dropped to one knee, wrapping her arms around Adele and sobbed into the crook of her neck, shaking her head over and over again. Lacy awed with the crowd and clapped her hands, still not letting go of Nyssa.

Lacy buried her face in the crook of Nyssa's neck. Nyssa whispered in her ear, "that could be us one day".

Lacy smiled and kissed Nyssa's cheek. And then her lips.

Because why the fuck not? One day, it could be them.

* * *

Most people hadn't quite realised that Adele and Kayla were actually in their twenties and legally allowed to get married, or that they'd been dating long enough for a bigass white wedding to be the next logical step.

Most people just thought it was the nerves and the joy of the day. Which was why all around camp, left and right and up and down, demigods were proposing to each other.

* * *

Miranda Gardner went to find Lou Ellen as soon as her shift weeding and trimming and watering the strawberry field was done.

Lou Ellen was sitting on the Big House porch, hexing a paintbrush up and down the walls to give the building a fresh coat of warm, buttery yellow.

Miranda climbed the porch gently and snuck up behind Lou Ellen (no easy feat, but eventually a girl had to learn) and covered her eyes with her hands. The paintbrush dropped and Lou Ellen jumped, startled.

"Who is it!"

"Not telling."

"Miranda, let me go."

"On one condition," Miranda said.

"What?" Lou Ellen asked.

Miranda dropped to one knee, and Lou Ellen turned around confused.

Miranda held up a flower crown she'd made, twisting daisy stems together instead of actually working all morning.

Lou Ellen laughed and knelt in front of Miranda, bowing her head. Miranda carefully set the crown down on Lou Ellen's dark hair. Lou Ellen raised a hand and wild flowers from all four corners of camps zoomed to her hand. Miranda watched as Lou Ellen bit her tongue and twisted her fingers, weaving the flowers together before finally, she had a crown for Miranda too. Today they were queens, not queers.

"There," Lou said. "We're flower-crown married."

"I'm excited for the flower crown honeymoon," Miranda said.

Lou Ellen's jaw dropped. Usually _she_ was the cheeky one, not the other way around!

"Miranda!" Lou said. "Chiron and Mr D are literally _just inside,_ right now."

Miranda couldn't help it. She kissed Lou senseless, pushing her against the wall of the Big House. She was a small town girl from Arkansas. This was never supposed to happen; not to Miranda, not this kind of blessing. The kind of blessing that Lou was. The kind of blessing that the promise of a wedding like everybody else could be.

Lou eventually pushed back and hopped away from the wall. "It's wet paint."

Miranda laughed and before she knew it, Lou had pushed her into the wall too, and now yellow paint was all over Miranda's orange shirt and in Miranda's hair. Neither of them changed all day, because changing would imply taking off the crowns.

* * *

Malcolm nearly had a heart attack when he walked out of his cabin after finishing the day's online summer class.

Mitchell, ever as theatrical, was standing at the steps of his cabin's front door with a group of children of Aphrodite and Apollo standing behind him in a triangular formation.

"Hit it, Austin!" Mitchell said.

It took a few seconds for Malcolm to recognise the song, but one of his sisters had had a Bruno Mars phase a while back so Malcolm soon recognised the tune even before Mitchell sang " _I Think I Want to Marry You"_ as the dancers behind him shuffled about the Center Green, attracting more attention than Malcolm had had in his entire life _._

 _Of course,_ his boyfriend had the loudest and most flamboyant proposal of the bunch. Of course.

And of course, Malcolm went ahead and said yes.

* * *

Usually Butch hated seeing rainbows around. Mostly because they were painted on a cartoon pony's butt or associated to something childish and girlish in some other way. They made Butch's mother a joke, and people tried to make him a joke in consequence.

But today? Seeing the rainbows plastered on cabin walls or on peoples' shirts or on flags wrapped around people's shoulders or even crossing the sky…

Butch could deal with the rainbows everywhere.

* * *

"What's wrong?" Piper asked, sitting down next to Jason. "You looked so happy this morning."

"I was," Jason said. "I mean, I am. It's just… Reyna's in Puerto Rico right now. Praetors get a week of vacation a year as long as they go home."

"Okay," Piper asked. "And?"

"And, she's alone in Puerto Rico- said she was planning on spending time at the beach and in bars and at clubs since she's on vacation. Clarisse was saying how her mom, she's a cop, says that there's going to be a ton of backlash by people who aren't happy with the bill," Jason said. "Like, a rise in hate crimes or something- because the bill only changes the law, not the people. I don't know, but I hope she takes care of herself."

"She will," Piper said wrapping an arm around Jason's shoulders. "She's Reyna."

"Yeah, not everybody knows," Jason said quietly, biting his lip.

* * *

"What's wrong, child?" Chiron said, walking out of the Big House to find Miranda Gardner curled up in a ball on his front steps.

"They were wrong," she said quietly.

"Pardon?" Chiron said kneeling next to her.

"They were wrong. All the kids who told me I was a freak. That I'd never be happy. That nobody would ever accept me. That I'd always be a- a plague on society."

Chiron stood still for a second. He could remember years and years, centuries and centuries of demigods speaking in quiet, heavy voices that went straight through Chiron's heart in the same subjects. He thought of William Shakespeare who had to hide his love in cryptic poems. Then of Leonardo de Vinci, scratching his head and wondering why he could make everything else around him work but was still broken. Lincoln who hid, trying to fix one problem at a time. Marie-Antoinette, always the scape-goat. Oscar Wilde, bold and beautiful. Virginia Woolf, whose adolescence was the roughest Chiron had seen in a while. Even Alexander the Great trembling at Camp upon learning that his father Philip had destroyed the all-gay Sacred Ban of Thebes.

For the first time, now one of these half-bloods was smiling as she said it.

"Of course," Chiron said. "They were so very wrong, my dear."

* * *

Okay, so it was an adorable trend- this whole proposal thing.

Drew had decided that she didn't mind it as much as she maybe could have, even when Connor Stoll jumped out of Cabin 10 and yelled MARRY ME at her and throwing a Ring Pop at her head, thinking that he was in Cabin 12 and that she must be Pollux (the boy was a ball of nerves- someone better tell him that he still had to be eighteen to get married). Drew forgot which one he was dating; Ryder or Leif.

But she sat on her bunk and still thought to herself: _okay, so now if Lacy marries girls it's okay and if Mitchell falls in love with boys. But if I don't fall for anyone and if I'm okay without anyone, I'm still going to be a freak. Not everyone's won just yet._

* * *

Supper was, of course, a mess. A beautiful mess, of course, but people were getting up and singing songs or reciting poems or giving each other candy rings and Ring Pops from the camp store every few minutes. There was too much confetti to count and the nymphs would kill them for making such messes. Multiple couples had actually proposed on many occasions- the current record stood at 16 for Mitchell and Malcolm, who couldn't help but try to outdo each other (rumour had it that Mitchell had a confetti canon and some rose petals planned for his next attempt).

The best, however, was when Pollux made one of the grapes on Connor Stoll nearly choked to death on a plastic toy ring that Pollux had dropped in his glass. He was crying when he said yes to his ditzy boyfriend (probably because of the near death experience and the fact that everything that flashed before his eyes had to point to the direction that he was going straight to hell, but whatever, it was cute).

* * *

Mark from Cabin 5 was a big guy. The kind of guy who walked around with a buzz cut and who walked with heavy, unapologetic steps.

Still, he cried like a baby when Shane from Cabin 9 came out with a ring he'd spent all day making in the forges.

Shane had lain comatose for fifteen days last summer after the war with Gaia. He'd been amputated by a Roman medic and had spent the last months learning how to walk, more often than not with Mark holding on to his arm. After such a war, so many nightmares and such a life filled with such pain; it was nice to finally catch a break. It was nice to have one less thing to worry aback. If they kept themselves alive, they could know spend the entierity of those lives together. What a blessing.

* * *

Butch crept into Clovis' cabin and knelt by his bedside. He shook Clovis' shoulder a bit.

"Clovis," he said softly. "Clovis, wake up man. Wake up."

Clovis only muttered back.

"I know, I know. Something really good must be happening right now in Dreamland. But something really good is happening in the real world for once, can you believe it?"

Clovis flipped on his other side so he faced the wall, away from Butch.

Butch sighed.

"Clovis, they made it legal. The Supreme Court did- same-sex marriage is legal everywhere. You can stop dreaming, Clovis. You can come back. Things are going to get better. Not perfect, but better."

Butch kissed Clovis' cheek. "I promise."

Clovis stirred at last.

* * *

Nyssa sat down next to Lacy on the dock. Tons of people had hopped into the lake since Chiron has abandoned all hope of making demigods stick to their usual schedules and responsibilities today.

"I figured that you'd be all ears for those fake proposals people are doing left and right," she said.

Lacy turned around, perking up. Nyssa grinned.

"The thing is I don't want to make promises I don't know if I can keep. I'm also not sure exactly if I believe that marriage is the right thing for everyone. But I can promise you some other things," Nyssa said. She took a glittering chain from a case in her pocket and tied it around Lacy's wrist. She pointed out every char on the bracelet, one at a time.

"I can promise you that I'll be gentle with you, even if I'm not used to dealing with emotions," she said pointing to a charm shaped like a dove. She pointed to an angel. "I promise I'll always look out for you." Her finger touched a little elephant with disproportionately big ears- Lacy's feel-good movie was _Dumbo._ "I promise to always listen, even if I don't talk a lot." A snowflake. "I'll always stay cool during our fights. I'll never raise my voice, I'll never raise my words and I will always hear you out." She pointed to a tiny silver pocket watch. "I promise that I'll always make time for you." There was an anchor. "I promise that I'll always help you stay grounded and I'll always sneak to your cabin when you have a nightmare." Now she was pointing out a high heel. "I'll never make fun of the things you love and I'll always try to love them too." She pointed to a tiny unicorn. "I promise that you'll always me special to me." She flicked the heart hanging on the bracelet. "I promise that I'll love you as much and as best as I can."

Lacy's eyes were tearing up.

"That's the best I can do," Nyssa said.

"Why on earth would I need anything more?" Lacy asked wrapping her arms around Nyssa's neck and sobbing into her shirt.

* * *

"You know, I'd propose to you too, but I think I should take you out for dinner first," Will said.

Nico turned around from the amphitheater, where people were piling in for the camp fire. Rumour had it that Chiron was going to be serving S'mores even if it wasn't a Friday. Nico was debating whether or not he should go. Now he was blushing like crazy.

"We've been on dates before," Nico said.

"No," Will said. "We've flirted to the point of no return and we've been passive-aggressively commenting on each other's asses for a year. And if you call it a date the one time we went to a restaurant to find Persephone's sacred crown before she killed you, that doesn't count."

"Fine then," Nico said. "I'll put on a nice shirt and you can pick me up at 5:00 next Saturday."

He was surprised at how bold he was. He was pretty sure he'd blushed more, and Will just smiled as if he'd known exactly what would happen and that there was no such thing as surprises. Like he knew that he had Nico wrapped around his little finger. Christ, this was all _before_ they went out to dinner. Nico would be a mess on Sunday.

"Glad you figured out the details for me," Will said.

"I'm Italian. I like my food. Make it some place nice," Nico asked. Was it possible to be so smooth that you could make up for an earlier social stumble?

"Oh, I was planning on it," Will said. He took Nico's hand, tempting Nico to say _we don't have to go anywhere or do anything, this is nice enough. Do this for two hours and I'm yours._ "Are you coming to the camp fire tonight? It's probably going to be gayest camp fire ever."

"What's a gay camp fire?" Nico asked.

"I don't know," Will asked. "But today was a gay day."

"The gayest day ever," Nico agreed with a smile. Will laughed and squeezed Nico's hand.

Too bad they had to wait for Saturday.

But this had to count for something, right?

Right.

Everything did.


End file.
